Under these circumstances, our men being dismayed by the novelty of this mode of battle, Cæsar most seasonably brought assistance; for upon his arrival the enemy paused, and our men recovered from their fear; upon which, thinking the time unfavourable for provoking the enemy and coming to an action, he kept himself in his own quarter, and, a short time having intervened, drew back the legions into the camp. While these things are going on and all our men engaged, the rest of the Britons who were in the fields departed. Storms then set in for several successive days, which both confined our men to camp and hindered the enemy from attacking us. In the meantime the barbarians despatched messengers to all parts, and reported to their people the small number of our soldiers, and how good an opportunity was given for obtaining spoil and for liberating themselves forever, if they should only drive the Romans from their camp. Having by these means speedily got together a large force of infantry and of cavalry, they came up to the camp.
[55-54 B.C.]
Although Cæsar anticipated that the same thing which had happened on former occasions would then occur—that, if the enemy were routed, they would escape from danger by their speed; still, having got about thirty horse, which Commius the Atrebatian [whom Cæsar had made a chief], had brought over with him from Gaul, he drew up the legions in order of battle before the camp. When the action commenced, the enemy were unable to sustain the attack of our men long, and turned their backs; our men pursued them as far as their speed and strength permitted, and slew a great number of them; then, having destroyed and burned everything far and wide, they retreated to their camp.
The same day, ambassadors sent by the enemy came to Cæsar to negotiate a peace. Cæsar doubled the number of hostages which he had before demanded; and ordered that they should be brought over to the continent, because, since the time of the equinox was near, he did not consider that, with his ships out of repair, the voyage ought to be deferred till winter. Having met with favourable weather, he set sail a little after midnight, and all his fleet arrived safe at the continent, except two of the ships of burden which could not make the same port which the other ships did, and were carried a little lower down.
When our soldiers, about three hundred in number, had been drawn out of these two ships, and were marching to the camp, the Morini, whom Cæsar, when setting forth for Britain, had left in a state of peace, excited by the hope of spoil, at first surrounded them with a small number of men, and ordered them to lay down their arms, if they did not wish to be slain; afterwards however, when they, forming a circle, stood on their defence, a shout was raised and about six thousand of the enemy soon assembled; which being reported, Cæsar sent all the cavalry in the camp as a relief to his men. In the meantime our soldiers sustained the attack of the enemy, and fought most valiantly for more than four hours, and, receiving but few wounds themselves, slew several of them. But after our cavalry came in sight, the enemy, throwing away their arms, turned their backs, and a great number of them were killed.
The day following Cæsar sent Labienus, his lieutenant, with those legions which he had brought back from Britain, against the Morini, who had revolted; who, as they had no place to which they might retreat, on account of the drying up of their marshes (which they had availed themselves of as a place of refuge the preceding year), almost all fell into the power of Labienus. In the meantime Cæsar’s lieutenants, Q. Titurius and L. Cotta, who had led the legions into the territories of the Menapii, having laid waste all their lands, cut down their corn and burned their houses, returned to Cæsar because the Menapii had all concealed themselves in their thickest woods. Cæsar fixed the winter quarters of all the legions amongst the Belgæ. Thither only two British states sent hostages; the rest omitted to do so. For these successes, a thanksgiving of twenty days was decreed by the senate upon receiving Cæsar’s letter.[d]
As only two of the British states sent the hostages, Cæsar resolved to make this a pretext for a second invasion of their island. When, therefore, he was setting out as usual for Italy, he directed his legates to repair the old and build new ships; and on his return in the summer (54) he found a fleet of twenty-eight long ships and six hundred transports ready. He embarked with five legions and two thousand Gallic horse, and landed at the same place as before. The Britons retired to the hills; and Cæsar, having left some troops to guard his camp, advanced in quest of them. He found them posted on the banks of a river (the Stour) about twelve miles inland. He attacked and drove them off; but next day, as he was preparing to advance into the country, he was recalled to the coast by tidings of the damage his fleet had sustained from a storm during the night. Having given the needful directions, he resumed his pursuit of the Britons, who laying aside their jealousies had given the supreme command to Cassivelaunus, king of the Trinobantes (Essex and Middlesex); but the Roman cavalry cut them up so dreadfully when they attacked the foragers, that they dispersed, and most of them went to their homes. Cæsar then advanced, and forcing the passage of the Thames invaded Cassivelaunus’ kingdom, and took his chief town. Having received the submissions and hostages of various states, and regulated the tributes they should (but never did) pay, he then returned to Gaul, where it being now late in autumn, he put his troops into winter quarters. The Gauls however, who did not comprehend the right of Rome and Cæsar to a dominion over them, resolved to fall on the several Roman camps, and thus to free their country. The eighth legion and five cohorts that were quartered in the country of the Eburones (Liège) were cut to pieces by that people, led by their prince Ambiorix; the camp of the legate Q. Cicero was assailed by them and the Nervii, and only saved by the arrival of Cæsar in person, who gave the Gauls a total defeat. The country became now tolerably tranquil; but Cæsar, knowing that he should have a war in the spring, had three new legions raised in Italy, and he prevailed on Pompey to lend him one which he had just formed.
[54-52 B.C.]
The most remarkable event of the following year (53) was Cæsar’s second passage of the Rhine to punish the Germans for giving aid to their oppressed neighbours. He threw a bridge over the Rhine a little higher up the river than the former one, and advanced to attack the Suevi; but learning that they had assembled all their forces at the edge of a forest and there awaited him, he thought it advisable to retire, fearing, as he tells us, the want of corn in a country where there was so little tillage as in Germany. Having broken down the bridge on the German side, and left some cohorts to guard what remained standing, he then proceeded with all humanity to extirpate the Eburones, on account, he says, of their perfidy. He hunted them down everywhere; he burned their towns and villages, consumed or destroyed all their corn, and then left their country with the agreeable assurance that those who had escaped the sword would perish of famine. Then having executed more majorum a prince of the Senones, and thus tranquillised Gaul, as he terms it, he set out for Italy to look after his interests there.